Sunday, May 24, 2009

Vittorio Orio Embarks on Another Expedition

The legendary Vittorio Orio has begun another installment in his long list of historic rows.This time he'll cross the border from Switzerland to Italy.The new expedition begins in Locarno and ends in Milan, Italy.Nereo Zane has a more exhaustive post on his blog:

2 comments:

Looks like Vittorio's venture is related to a project to restore water-borne traffic links across Europe:

"The Istituto per i Navigli has been campaigning for the return of navigation on the Naviglio Grande canal.

The project, called From Switzerland to the Sea promotes the restoration of the canal as part of a long distance waterway linking Lake Maggiore, located partly in Switzerland, to Milan and Venice in Italy."

If Europe wants to lead in a new era of "green economy", inland waterways will be really important, for commerce, tourism and general quality of life.

There are several landlocked countries in Europe, so providing riverine routes to the sea is also an important matter of politics in the European Union.

Italy's situation is a bit different in this regard, as the Alps separate it from the Main-Rhein-Danube european riverine corridor (Basel to Locarno is over 200km distance).

Italy however has a lot of sea access, so it is not a big problem for them.

About Me

Hi, I'm Greg. I'm 50, very happily married, love being a dad, and a gondolier. More correctly, I'm a "Gondola Fanatic", I've tried to quit many times but I just can't walk away from the crescent-shaped boat. I have rowed gondolas in many places, try to visit gondola operators wherever I go, and quite commonly look at waterways (from harbors to drainage ditches) and say to myself "hey, I could row a gondola there". My Doctor has determined that I have "Gondola Psychosis", he says the only solution is to immerse myself completely in everything to do with these boats. With any luck, one day I'll get sick of gondolas and be free of my condition. My wife can only hope.